List of mammals displaying homosexual behavior

Giraffes in Kenya; giraffes have been called "especially gay" for engaging in male-male sexual behavior more often than male-female (heterosexual) sex.[1][2]

This is a list of mammals for which there is documented evidence of homosexual behavior. These animals have been observed practicing homosexual courtship, sexual behavior, affection, pair bonding, or parenting.

Bruce Bagemihl writes that the presence of same-sex sexual behavior was not officially observed on a large scale until the 1990s due to possible observer bias caused by social attitudes towards LGBT people, which made homosexuality in animals a taboo subject.[3][4] He devotes three chapters, "Two Hundred Years at Looking at Homosexual Wildlife", "Explaining (Away) Animal Homosexuality", and "Not For Breeding Only" in his 1999 book Biological Exuberance to the "documentation of systematic prejudices" where he notes "the present ignorance of biology lies precisely in its single-minded attempt to find reproductive (or other) "explanations" for homosexuality, transgender, and non-procreative and alternative heterosexualities.[5] Petter Bøckman, academic adviser for the Against Nature? exhibit, stated "[M]any researchers have described homosexuality as something altogether different from sex. They must realise that animals can have sex with who they will, when they will and without consideration to a researcher's ethical principles". Homosexual behavior is found amongst social birds and mammals, particularly the sea mammals and the primates.[4]

Animal sexual behavior takes many different forms, even within the same species and the motivations for and implications of their behaviors have yet to be fully understood. Bagemihl's research shows that homosexual behavior, not necessarily sexual activity, has been documented in about 500 species as of 1999, ranging from primates to gut worms.[3][6] Homosexuality in animals is controversial with some social conservatives because it asserts the naturalness of homosexuality in humans, while others counter that it has no implications and is nonsensical to equate animal behavior to morality.[7][8] Animal preference and motivation is inferred from behavior, thus homosexual behavior has been given a number of terms over the years. Modern research[9][10][11][12] applies the term homosexuality to all sexual behavior (copulation, genital stimulation, mating games and sexual display behavior) between animals of the same sex.

This is a list of some mammals that have been recorded engaging in homosexual behavior, which is part of a larger list of animals displaying homosexual behavior including birds, insects, fish, etc.

Selected images[edit]

List[edit]

See also[edit]

Bibliography[edit]

References[edit]

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  6. ^ Harrold (1999)
  7. ^ Solimeo (2004)
  8. ^ Solimeo (2004b)
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  10. ^ Roughgarden (2004) pp.13-183
  11. ^ Vasey (1995) pages 173-204
  12. ^ Sommer & Vasey (2006)
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  14. ^ a b Imaginova (2007e)
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  20. ^ a b Imaginova (2007h)
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  24. ^ Imaginova (2007b)
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  29. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Bagemihl (1999) page 378
  30. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Bagemihl (1999) page 405
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  46. ^ Poiani (2010) page 52
  47. ^ Bagemihl (1999) pages 276–279. Excerpt from the book: Common Chimpanzees engage in full mouth-to-mouth contact[...] Oral sex of various kinds also occurs in a number of species[, for example] cunnilingus in Common Chimpanzees[...] In [...] Common Chimpanzees, individuals often rub their anal and genital regions together[...] Other [...] forms of "manual" stimulation include [...] anal stimulation and penetration with fingers by male Common Chimpanzees.
  48. ^ a b Poiani (2010) page 51
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  50. ^ Bagemihl (1999) page 457
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  58. ^ Thierry Lodé La guerre des sexes chez les animaux Eds O Jacob, Paris, 2006.ISBN 2-7381-1901-8
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  68. ^ a b Bagemihl (1999) pages 293–298
  69. ^ Bagemihl (1999) page 347
  70. ^ Bagemihl (1999) page 412
  71. ^ Bagemihl (1999) page 465-466
  72. ^ Bagemihl (1999) pages 81, 165, 205, 226, 231
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  79. ^ a b Bagemihl (1999) page 397-401
  80. ^ a b Bagemihl (1999) page 336-338
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  89. ^ a b Bagemihl (1999) page 448
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  92. ^ Bagemihl (1999) pages 387–390
  93. ^ a b c Bagemihl (1999) pages 418–421
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  95. ^ Bagemihl (1999) pages 410–413
  96. ^ Bagemihl (1999) page 472
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  98. ^ Bagemihl (1999) pages 284–288
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  103. ^ Bagemihl (1999) pages 394–396
  104. ^ Bagemihl (1999) pages 397–401
  105. ^ Bagemihl (1999) page 451
  106. ^ Bagemihl (1999) page 81
  107. ^ Bagemihl (1999) page 440
  108. ^ Bagemihl (1999) pages 437–441
  109. ^ Bagemihl (1999) pages 453–455
  110. ^ Bagemihl (1999) pages 364–365
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  113. ^ Pengzhen Huang; Xin He; Endi Zhang; Min Chen (2017). "Do same-sex mounts function as dominance assertion in male golden snub-nosed monkeys (Rhinopithecus roxellana)?". Am J Primatol. 79 (5): e22636. doi:10.1002/ajp.22636. PMID 28103402. S2CID 3875410.
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  124. ^ Bagemihl (1999) pages 370–374
  125. ^ Imaginova (2007g)
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  127. ^ Bagemihl (1999) page 421
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  129. ^ Bagemihl (1999) pages 374–377
  130. ^ Bagemihl (1999) pages 288–290
  131. ^ Bagemihl (1999) page 424
  132. ^ Poiani (2010) page 50